Toronto Star: Deadline looms for Air Canada pilot strike — and experts say Ottawa would be unlikely to step in

On Aug. 22, Air Canada pilots voted 98 per cent in favour of a strike if a deal is not reached with the airline by the Sept. 17 deadline.

Whether the 5,400 pilots walk out will depend a lot on whether the company is willing to risk a shut down, said Barry Prentice, director of the Transport Institute at the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba. Now that the airline is entering the slower fall travel season, Prentice says they might be willing to risk a strike.

The government, however, has a track record of legislating pilots back to work, said Prentice, noting Stephen Harper’s conservative government legislated pilots back to work in 2012.

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